Jon's Side of the Story: About That Three-Wheeled Christmas Surprise...

Since I wrote my blog post the other day about the Christmas surprise I got for Jon this year – which elicited a somewhat inscrutable response from him – lots of folks have been asking me how Jon likes the Schwinn Meridian now that he’s had a chance to check it out. I kept saying that I wasn’t quite sure yet, since I wasn’t, but now I am.

So this afternoon I was going to write up a Part II to my first blog post , but Jon said he wanted to write Part II himself. I like this idea of him telling his side of the Christmas surprise story, since I have already given you my version.

So without further ado, here’s Jon’s own take on my surprise Christmas gift to him this year, and what he thought & thinks of it.

If you saw the photo Katie got of me when I first saw the present she gave me for Christmas this year, you already know that I was, um, how to put this? Caught off guard by the surprise. What you also see on my face in the picture is total this-does-not-compute confusion because, while Ididn’t want to say it to Katie at the time, at first I had absolutely no idea what that thing was. Was it a bike? A delivery cart? Was it for me? What the heck? How do you tell your wife and kids that you aren’t really sure what they just gave you for Christmas?

In general, I love it when Katie does surprises. A few years ago, she managed to pull off a real surprise birthday party for me — the kind where I had no idea that anything was happening until I walked in the door and saw dozens of my favorite people grinning back at me. Not only was the surprise itself great but so was the party. However, even that time I think that my initial reaction was muted until I got a chance to let it all sink in. That was an awesome party.

But back to “the trike.” Katie says she doesn’t remember this, but sometime back I did mention to her how much I miss being able to ride a bike around town like I did when I was in school, but that my old bike probably wasn’t worth fixing. In a perfect world, Katie and I would have only one rarely-needed car, and even though I run every other day (weather permitting), I would love to get more exercise. However, I am pretty sure I never mentioned wanting a bike with three wheels, mostly because the idea of riding a bike with three wheels would never have occurred to me. That helps explain why I was so confused when presented with one on Christmas.

After my initial confusion, I could tell Katie was waiting for me to give her some feedback on the bike, but to be honest I didn’t know what I thought of it yet, so that’s what I told her. I did go outside and look at it a few times on Christmas Day. However, there was no way I was going to give an opinion until I rode it, and there was no way I was riding any bike for the first time with spectators, no matter how many wheels it had.

On the day after Christmas, when the family chaos had calmed, I went out by myself and took Trikey for a ride. I was surprised by how fun it was, and I had a great time coasting around our neighborhood. I planned to only stay out on it for a few minutes but ended up riding for a little while because frankly, I’d forgotten how much fun riding is, no matter how many wheels are on whatever it is you are pedaling.

After I brought the bike back to the house I started thinking about how much I actually would like to have a bike to ride, and how useful a cargo space like the one on the three wheeler could be, as Katie had pointed out to me.

After another ride the next day, I realized that I really do like the idea that prompted Katie to get me this particular gift as a surprise — namely her belief that I would like to be able to get around town without a car but still able to cart stuff with me. So ultimately I’ve come to two conclusions regarding the surprise gift. Conclusion number one is that my wife was completely spot on when she decided that I would really enjoy having a new bike of my own – and one with plenty of cargo capacity. She got this part of her surprise exactly right. However, I had to break conclusion number two to her yesterday: I really want a cargo bike with only two wheels, not three.

Even though she kept telling me that it was fine if the present was too weird and that it was mine to keep or sell, I was still worried that her feelings would be hurt when I told her that the three wheels just aren’t my thing. However in this case she surprised me because she really did seem fine with what I proposed, which is this: I am going to research what kind of two wheeled city cargo bike I really want, and shop around and then let Katie know which bikes would be my top picks. She and I have already started Googling to look at what’s out there. I wantKatie to choose my new bike for me from my list of potential rides, and then she and the kids can “surprise” me with it sometime later this month or next month — to coincide with my upcoming birthday. However, I also told her that we’re definitely keeping the big red trike that started this whole thing. It really is fun to ride around and very practical. I may not be the trike’s primary rider, but I’m going to try to get Katie to start riding it around. Since the big kids have bikes now, too, once I get mine we can all go cruise around town together. The only thing I will have to figure out is how to bring our two youngest along for the ride.

If you see us all riding around Knoxville in the next few months, I’ll be the very lucky guy on his brand new two wheels, who has a very sweet wife who likes planning big surprises for him.

So, any suggestions for a two-wheeled bike with room to carry stuff?

-J.A.H.

++++++

Thanks Jon. I can’t wait to surprise you in a month or two…with two wheels this time around. xoxo – Kate

NOTE: Please feel free to speak your mind in the comments on this blog post, and in comments on any of my posts, but if you leave comments in which all you do is stuff like slag my husband, call me ugly names that have no relevance to any substantive point, attack other commenters, lob ad hominem insults at anyone, or are in any other way fundamentally rude or just plain mean in expressing your point of view, your comment won’t be published or will be deleted if it somehow escapes Babble’s moderation process. This position on what’s acceptable here is consistent with Babble’s community standards, which you can see published below every blog post and article appearing on this site.

It is totally possible to disagree – with me or with another commenter – without being disagreeable.

Thank you.

-Katie

FacebookTwitterGoogle+TumblrPinterest

Tagged as:

Use a Facebook account to add a comment, subject to Facebook's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your Facebook name, profile photo and other personal information you make public on Facebook (e.g., school, work, current city, age) will appear with your comment. Learn More.